Passage of the Kissing People - Tapa blanda

Stolen and Lost: The Kissing People, an heirloom silver brooch. Mama Marossi's good luck charm is stolen by seven-year-old Michael Kohler who adores her and her family, especially her daughter Gisella. The brooch is lost when Michael flees the Sonoma Valley. In this lyrical tale of memory, a fifty-year-old artist's past leads to a romantic mystery in his present. In 1953 the death of an inmate from the Sonoma State Home for the Feebleminded causes young Michael to call his father a liar. The phrase, “Are you scared to learn the goddamned truth?” echoes between them for forty years, as a challenge to authority, a demand for justice, a plea for love, and an offer of reconciliation. In 1996 Michael is challenged by an anonymous email. He must return to Sonoma to face his childhood love Gisella, and the family from whom he stole the silver brooch. To gain forgiveness for his dying father and himself, he must find the long-lost Kissing People.

Peter Kahle and his sister spent their after school hours with the wife of the head of security on the grounds of the Sonoma State Home for the Feebleminded, as it once was called. Their parents worked on the staff there, and Peter and Judy learned to live comfortably in that strange, sad, inspiring world.A graduate of Michigan State University, he has been a teacher and a stained glass artist, and currently works for the University of Washington. He is a past president of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and a member of Seattle Free Lances. He is the author of two books for middle-grade readers: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Prose Narrative, and Shakespeare's The Tempest: A Prose Narrative. The books are retellings of the plays in story form. He co-authored Naked at the Podium: The Writer's Guide To Successful Readings with acting coach Melanie Workhoven.Mr. Kahle has directed several productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He speaks at schools, libraries and conferences on how to introduce children (and adults) to Shakespeare and the theatre. He also conducts workshops on presentation skills for writers. He lives in the Northwest with his wife, Lani, and a fictional monkey.Passage of the Kissing People is his first novel.